The Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to win both Games 3 and 4 on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves but were not able to close it out in either contest, so they now face a daunting 3-1 series deficit.
In Game 4, L.A. had a double-digit lead in the second half and looked to be on their way to evening the series. JJ Redick opted to play the same five guys the entire second half, and it came back to bite them as Minnesota came back and hung on for the win. Austin Reaves had a chance to tie it with a corner triple at the buzzer, but it unfortunately rimmed out.
Winning three straight against this Timberwolves team will not be easy, but Reaves knows the series isn’t over, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“Anytime you have an opportunity to go lace them up and play again, you’re not out of it. A lot of these games besides Game 1… could’ve gone our way if we made a couple more plays down the stretch. But we didn’t, dug ourselves in a hole. The sun will come up tomorrow and we still another day to fight.”
In Game 4, the Lakers had a 36-point third quarter to appear to take control of the game, outscoring the Timberwolves by 13 in the frame. Reaves discussed what they did well that they can replicate to find more success to get back in the series:
“I thought we did a lot of good in that third quarter. As you can tell, we outscored them by 13 and we just continued to get good looks. We gotta watch the film and see how we can do that almost every possession. You gotta have a good look almost every possession. Even in that fourth quarter, we had some good looks that we didn’t convert. I think I had two 3s that were basically wide open that I didn’t make. I think Bron had a layup, Luka had a layup. So you just gotta continue to fight and believe in yourself.”
The fourth quarter was the difference in both Games 3 and 4, so if Reaves and the Lakers want to make this a series, then they must figure out how to execute better to close out these games. They now have a couple of days to regroup before returning to Crypto.com Arena for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Luka Doncic: Lakers need to ‘believe’ to erase 3-1 deficit
Luka Doncic agreed with Austin Reaves that this series isn’t over and stressed the need for the Lakers to continue believing.
“It’s definitely disappointing, but nothing is lost. We haven’t lost nothing yet. It’s first to four wins and we just gotta still believe.”
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